The term, "Ethernet" refers to a local area network protocol which uses a carder sense multiple access with a collision detection scheme to arbitrate the use of a network cable segment or segments for the transmission and reception of digital packets at a rate of 10 Mb/s. Ethernet is implemented on thick wire or thin wire coaxial cable, unshielded or shielded twisted-pair cable, fiber optic cable, satellite, and microwave links. The Ethernet protocol is defined and regulated by the IEEE 802.3 standard.
The prior art Ethernet monitoring systems generally include a plurality of monitoring devices each with their own physical address, connected to a single segment or connected to respective segments of a local area network which is compatible with a selective IEEE standard, and includes a single terminal work station consisting of a personal computer and display also connected to the local area network and diagnostic software to manage and interrogate the monitoring devices.
However, these prior art monitoring systems with multiple monitors are generally complex and costly. In order for these monitoring systems to function, each monitoring device must have a unique physical address and the terminal work station must have prior knowledge of the physical address of each monitoring device or the management software to request and compile the physical addresses of all the monitoring devices. Further, these monitoring systems require expensive diagnostic software and specialized training for personnel to operate the terminal work station and software. Furthermore, the fault detection, display and alarm functions of these monitoring systems are generally resident at a single terminal work station which usually is remote distance from the segment which becomes faulty. This causes a maintainability time delay in fault identification and alerting as well as necessitating a visit to the station for reprogramming every time an additional monitoring device is added, removed or adjusted.
Other prior art monitoring systems consist of a single monitor and a scanner. However, because the number of monitors is necessarily limited to one and the alarm and display functions are only in a remote scanner device, these systems, as with the other prior art monitoring systems, have a time delay in fault identification and alerting. Furthermore, the monitoring system is controlled by the scanner device and the monitoring system can only be reset or shutdown by the scanner device which requires a visit to the location of the scanner.